One last battle: how shall we mark the First World War?

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An almighty battle looms over how to commemorate the start of the First World War in 1914

The sound of fighting is still distant, but drawing closer, as an almighty
battle looms over how to commemorate the start of the First World War in
1914.

That brutal four-year conflict claimed some 16 million lives, and left a
permanent scar on both the British psyche and the landscape of northern
France and Belgium. It was supposed to be the war to end all wars, but
almost 100 years after it started there is little agreement on what the war
meant, why it happened, and how it should be remembered.

A budget of £50 million has been allocated to

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Officers of the 12th East Yorkshire Regiment in their mess dug-out

April 27 2013 Imperial War Museum

Officers of the 12th East Yorkshire Regiment in their mess dug-out

April 27 2013 Imperial War Museum

John Mills in Oh! What a Lovely War

April 27 2013 The Kobal Collection

Families celebrate the end of the First World War

Wilfred Owen: Anthem for Doomed Youth
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, – The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds, And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
Sir Max Hastings
The poets felt that no discernible cause was worth the ghastly slaughter taking place; that it would be better to end it on any terms rather than to continue to pursue a meaningless victory.
While the war was an unquestionable tragedy for Europe, there were vital issues at stake, which had to be defended; Britain could not credibly have remained neutral while Germany secured hegemony over the continent.
Far from the struggle having been futile, it was fought in a just and necessary cause. Posterity has every reason to be grateful that the allies prevailed.